Medical students as health coaches, and more: adding value to both education and patient care

New ways of thinking about medicine and health care demand new methods in medical education. Over the past two decades, as both the practice and the study of medicine have become increasingly concerned with demonstrable outcomes, medical schools have developed new curricula in health systems science and are increasingly emphasizing students’ development and demonstration of skills essential to a systems-based, outcomes-oriented practice environment. Polak and colleagues recently reported the development in Israel of one such curriculum, in lifestyle medicine, that includes opportunities for students to adopt the role of health coach. This commentary describes additional recent curricular developments elsewhere with similar goals, but utilizing more ambitious approaches that embed students in medical practices and provide meaningful, ongoing responsibility for assisting in the care of patients. These emerging new models for ambulatory care education, through a construct known as “value added education,” can simultaneously benefit both educational and patient care outcomes.